1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing apparatus, and in particular to techniques for improving the flexibility of the design of a bus interconnect block for such data processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The design of components for a data processing apparatus is a labour intensive task, and becomes more complex as data processing apparatus increase in complexity. One such component is a bus interconnect block which is used to define the bus connections between various other components within the data processing apparatus. In particular, the bus interconnect block will define the bus infrastructure that allows a number of master devices to access a number of slave devices. As data processing apparatus increase in complexity, the number of master and slave devices to be interconnected increases, as do the number of ways in which those master and slave devices can be connected. This significantly increases the complexity of the design of the bus interconnect block, and in particular the various connections specified by the bus interconnect block. There will be various characteristics of the bus interconnect block which will need to be taken into account when designing the bus interconnect block, for example timing characteristics, power consumption characteristics, etc. Any design choice that is made during the design of the bus interconnect block in order to seek to meet a requirement for a particular chosen characteristic (e.g. to improve a timing characteristic) will typically be replicated across all of the connections specified by the bus interconnect block, and whilst this can assist in meeting the requirement for the chosen characteristic, it can prove sub-optimal, and can result in the introduction of other undesirable characteristics which then need addressing.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a methodology and design tool which would assist in the design of a bus interconnect block, and which would allow design modifications to be made iteratively with limited impact on previously made design decisions.